We read the study by Shanafelt et al1 with great interest. The authors surveyed 7268 US physicians for professional burnout in comparison with nonmedical US workers. They showed that physicians have a higher prevalence and a significantly greater risk for professional burnout compared with the general population. We are thankful to the authors for studying this extremely important topic. The major question that remains is why this happens, and more importantly, what we can do to prevent physician burnout?